Captivating combinations
October 06, 2009
September 20, 2009
September 16, 2009
rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' and liatris spicata
Granted, this is a rather pathetic looking example of a classic fall combination, but here you go! I am excited about this one because every year the hares have eaten all the flower buds off my rudbeckia and it has never bloomed.
This year maybe it has reached a critical mass such that even though some buds were eaten, it still looks decent.
I plunked the liatris bulb in this spring because I had bought a package to fill up some spots in the other (new) side of the front welcome garden. Those ones all had their tops eaten but this one didn't - go figure!
September 04, 2009
September 01, 2009
August 15, 2009
August 08, 2009
August 01, 2009
bergenia, hosta and festuca glauca...
...with lilies, and self-seeded clarkia and borage in the background.
July 27, 2009
a fab foliage combination, if I do say so myself!
Since most perennials bloom for such a short period of time, one of the tricks to perennial gardening is to use lots of plants that look good even when they're not blooming. In this combination above, backlit in the afternoon sun, there is nothing in bloom except a little bit of yellow-flowering sedum in the bottom left corner that found its own way into the garden. But things still look interesting thanks to the different shapes, colours and textures of the plants. The other plants, left to right, are:
calamagrostis (feather reed grass) 'Karl Foerster', dwarf bearded iris, hosta 'Sun Power', festuca glauca (blue fescue), with bergenia behind.
Now, I really must get around to replacing that retaining wall behind the bird bath... as soon as it cools down out there!
tango asiatic lily and painted daisy
The daisies are all finished now, after all this heat, but I snapped this pic last week as the lilies were just starting to open.
July 17, 2009
July 13, 2009
July 08, 2009
July 04, 2009
salvia 'May Night', iceland poppies and white peony
This peony is supposed to bloom with some purple siberian irises planted nearby, but this year the irises finished before the peony bloomed. That's OK, there's blue salvia planted on the other side of it! And those are some cosmos behind the poppies in the first picture that also just started blooming.
red peony and blue centaurea montana (cornflower)
Even though they're not blooming, I think the foliage of baby's breath and Karl Foerster feather reed grass also look great with these plants. The white petunia is an annual so I can change this vignette every year. What else do you think would look good in the pot?
partners for iris germanica (bearded iris) 'Bounty'
I have lots of this plant in my front yard because it smells so nice and is pretty low maintenance (I would classify it as very low maintenance if it didn't need to be divided every few years). Clockwise from top left:
ornamental alliums, shasta daisies and sedum (stonecrop); red sedum and snow-in-summer; shasta daisies; chives.
partners for nepeta (catmint) 'Six Hills Giant'
I love this plant! And the bees do too. Here are some of the things I have growing with it (clockwise from left):
helictotrichon (blue oat grass), painted daisy, elder 'Black Lace'; pink sea thrift and iris pallida (variegated iris); lady's mantle and astrantia.
partners for pyrethrum tanacetum (painted daisy)
This 'Robinson's Red' painted daisy looks good with several other things in my garden. Clockwise from top left:
ornamental alliums and elder 'Black Lace'; siberian iris; helicotrichon (blue oatgrass); blue oat grass and ornamental alliums again; hesperalis matronalis (both purple and white); catmint, ornamental alliums, hesperalis matronalis and iceland poppies.
July 02, 2009
anemone sylvestris (windflower) and chives
I took this picture a week and a half ago and the windflowers are no longer in bloom, but here you go anyway. Better late than never!
